Table 13.16

Saliva cotinine levels, by minority ethnic group

Aged 4-15 with valid saliva cotinine measurement							1999
Saliva cotinine (ng/ml)	Minority ethnic group						General population (1997)
	Black
	Caribbean	Indian	Pakistani	Bangladeshi	Chinese	Irish
Boys
Observed
75th percentile	2	1	1	3	1	2	2
90th percentile	7	5	2	7	2	5	6
95th percentile	22	22	4	73	2	8	12
Mean	10	11	2	10	2	3	7
Standard error of the mean	4.05	4.12	0.63	2.67	1.55	1.29	0.75
% with cotinine 15 ng/ml or more	6	5	2	8	1	3	5
Ratios
Mean cotinine level	1.31	1.49	0.23	1.37	0.32	0.46	1
Standard error	0.57	0.60	0.09	0.39	0.21	0.19
Cotinine 15 ng/ml or more	1.32	1.10	0.44	1.78	0.30	0.56	1
Standard error	0.43	0.41	0.23	0.50	0.28	0.28
Girls
Observed
75th percentile	2	1	1	3	0	4	3
90th percentile	4	1	1	5	1	9	7
95th percentile	7	2	3	12	2	39	21
Mean	7	0	1	6	1	8	9
Standard error of the mean	3.01	0.12	0.08	2.32	0.09	2.23	0.80
% with cotinine 15 ng/ml or more	3	-	-	4	-	9	6
Ratios
Mean cotinine level	0.80	0.06	0.08	0.69	0.06	0.95	1
Standard error	0.34	0.01	0.01	0.27	0.01	0.27
Cotinine 15 ng/ml or more	0.50	0.00	0.00	0.73	0.00	1.47	1
Standard error	0.22	-	-	0.31	-	0.41
Bases (weighted):
Boys	110	155	113	43	25	550	a
Girls	120	114	127	35	23	519	a
Bases (unweighted):
Boys	158	143	185	157	82	156	2209
Girls	175	113	198	130	66	146	2230

^a The 1997 general population data are weighted according to the weighting scheme for that year's survey. Weighted bases are not shown because they do not follow the 1999 weighting scheme.

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